Summary
The forest industry in Great Britain harvests nearly 8 million tonnes of wood annually, supplying it to sawmills, panelboard mills, paper and board mills, and various other uses. This industry directly employs 17,200 people, while wood-using industries based on British timber provide an additional 11,200 jobs, with 1,100 people engaged in haulage. Northern Ireland likely supports another 1,200 jobs.
This report places these employment estimates within a historical and industrial context. It calculates that the forest industry's supply chains employ 7,400 people (including transport activities), and the wood-using industries employ 9,500 people (excluding timber supply chain jobs). Altogether, these five sources of employment based on British wood account for over 45,000 jobs, or 0.17% of all UK jobs. These jobs are distributed across the UK as follows: England 48%, Wales 13%, Scotland 36%, and Northern Ireland 3% (estimated). Additionally, the income spent by these jobholders supports a further 20,000 jobs, totaling more than 65,000 jobs, or roughly 0.25% of the workforce.
